Bible Verse for Sunday Service May 25, 2025
Deuteronomy 7:9
Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations
Announcements:
Ladies Bible Study, 10 AM, Last study for the summer: This Tuesday will be the last meeting for the summer. After the study, the ladies will go out for lunch. Thanks to Sandy Schlosser for leading the group.
VBS Workers Meeting May 21 at 6:30 PM: we will have just one meeting to get organized for VBS, so this is an important meeting to attend. Let Natasha know if you can serve in our VBS will help out in anyway.
Improving Your Health Wednesday 5 PM: because of the VBS meeting, the group will be meeting at 5 PM
Vacation Bible School June 16 – 20th, 9 AM to 11:45 AM: The VBS theme this year is “Wonder Junction” and we feature old West decorations, and a focus on the person of Jesus Christ. The children will learn who Jesus is, and what he has done for us. We look forward to an exciting week and ask for your prayers as we prepare.
VBS cards on the foyer table: help to get the word out by letting families know if about upcoming VBS. There are small business size cards on the foyer table for you to use to invite others.
LaVie Baby Bottle Campaign: We are giving everyone an opportunity to give to the LaVie Clinic’s baby bottle campaign. Your gift will be used to fund the services offered by LaVie, which assist women facing unplanned pregnancies. Use the bottle for your gift, and then bring it back and place it in the bag anytime in the next four Sundays, by Father’s Day.
Special May 25, 2025
After quoting Galatians 6:14a “But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,” Jimmy sang “More than Ever” a Southern Gospel song composed by William Gaither and Woody Wright. This song has been featured in various performances by the Gaither Vocal Band. A live video of the song performed at the Saenger Performing Arts Center in 2001 can be found on YouTube. We were all blessed with Jimmy’s singing, which you can see below or here.
Sermon:
Reverting back to his series in Revelation after Mothers Day, Pastor Jim spoke to us on Revelation 2:8-11 in a sermon titled “What to do When Persecuted.” In covering the church Smyrna, Pastor remarked that this is the only church that of the seven churches addressed in Revelation 2 that wasn’t corrected after being praised by Jesus. He just encouraged them in three admonitions that Pastor covered in three points. These admonitions help us today as we face an increasingly intolerant world toward Christ and Christianity.
Firstly, Christ admonishes the church to listen to His voice. This helped the congregation not get wrapped in the prosperity of that city, Smyrna, that was often referred to as a little Rome, a city with a lot of pride in itself. We should then always remember who He is, the first and the last, and just like the residents of Smyrna. We mustn’t succumb to other gods like Caesar. Even if we are going through a hard time, a persecution, we must remember that Jesus knows everything. He knows our true worth, the riches we have in Heaven. Pastor closed out this section by reminding us of Ephesians 1:18. We should see with the eyes of our heart.
For his next point, Pastor advised that we, just like the church in Smyrna, should know the source of our persecution. One might think it is obvious, the non-believers in Smyrna, or the ones today that persecute Christians. However, Pastor points out that is not Jesus’ understanding. He recognizes that the problem lies with Satan. It is always Satan’s intention both inside and outside the church to sow discord, and suffering. But, the good news is that the Lord can often use that suffering as testing/strengthening to build our faith. More good news is that Satan is limited. His day will end.
While last, perhaps most importantly, we should follow Christ’s directives delivered to this church in its time of testing, be faithful, keep faithfulness and be faithful unto death. Christ promises that continued faithfulness will win us a crown in heaven. And our faith here should be a courageous one like Polycarp who was burned at the stake when he was 86 years old.
To send us on our way for the week, Pastor challenged us to make the same commitment, to stay faithful, and to finish our lives well in service of Him.
Accessing the Service, Bulletin and Sermon Outline:
Here are the pages from the bulletin, click on the images below to see them full size:
If you would like to have the sermon outline, you can download it here, a pdf file.
If you would like a link to this service you can find it here. Perhaps you would like to share it with your friends. You could also share that link on social media, if you use any of the providers. We use Rumble, a safe alternative to Google’s YouTube.